One Year Later

One year ago today, the company I worked for went out of business. I think that’s a nicer way of saying we “collapsed” or “failed”. Over the nine years I spent there (over the course of 14 years), four different names hung above our door but it still just always felt like Providian.

I am proud of my accomplishments and even more proud of my team’s accomplishments. I worked for some great leaders that pushed me to succeed and taught me a great deal. I had the privilege of working with some very talented and hard working people and have many, many awesome memories.

More than 1,000 of my colleagues and friends lost their jobs in the months after the collapse. For those that are still looking for that next great gig, hold your head high; keep up the fight.

Stay positive. Keep looking. Never stop looking.

Ride For A Reason

Today, I rode in the Ride For A Reason with a group of other cyclists from work.

This was the first time I have done this ride and wasn’t sure what to expect. All I heard was that it was a great way to spend a half day on a bike while supporting some very worthwhile charities. With the focus on improving the lives of those fighting Parkinson’s disease and cancer, the RFAR benefits the Davis Phinney Foundation,Livestrong, UC Davis Cancer Center and Triumph Fitness Program.

As bike rides go, I wouldn’t normally have done this one. Driving almost 60 miles to do a ride less than that has always been an unofficial no-no in my book. I enjoy riding centuries out on the open road. The ride, however, was absolutely worth it.

This ride was a party from the start. The start line was at Nimbus Flat at Lake Natoma. There was great food and drinks and tons of raffle prizes. They were giving away bikes to the top fundraisers and had other great prizes. The cool things was that you could buy raffle tickets for $1 and put them into whatever drawings you wanted to. The general raffle had some of the best giveaways, including 4 pairs of Oakley Livestrong Jawbone sunglasses. The ride started at 8 AM and the ride was a 12-mile loop along the beautiful American River bike trail.

Along the route were great themed rest stops with more food, drinks and prizes. At the Beale Point rest stop I took my chance at horseshoes and won a couple of small prizes. With each stop I also got more tickets to enter in the raffle. The volunteers (there must have been hundreds) were arguably the most energetic and friendly group of volunteers I have ever seen at a ride!

After the first loop, including Beale Point, I went around the circuit two more times. Lunch at the end was better than at any other ride I’ve done: bar-b-qued steak and chicken, caesar salad and rice from The Outback Steakhouse. Of course, I was hungry, but I wasn’t there to eat. I wanted to win something. Before the raffle winners were announced, John Crews, the owner of Bicycles Plus in Folsom, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, gave a very touching speech. He got choked up a little and it was then I realized the power of this ride. My eyes welled up as he thanked the organizers, volunteers and riders. I didn’t win anything in the raffle but it was still a lot of fun to see everyone else win great prizes.

In the end, I logged 44.4 miles and had an awesome time. The big difference with this ride was the fact that none of it was on the open road. That was nice because of lack of car traffic. It was challenging at times because of the amount of other bikes and joggers out on the trail. On the other hand, it was so cool seeing families out on the ride and everyone was cautious and careful. I will definitely be doing this ride again next year!

I did take a few pictures. Check them out here.

Stockton Blogger Meet-up

Tonight, The Record hosted a blogger meet-up at Valley Brew, right off the beautiful Miracle Mile. With “We’re bloggers. You’re bloggers. Isn’t it about time we meet face to face?” as the only introduction to the event, I signed up to attend.

For a first-time event there was a good turnout: Tara Cuslidge, Kirk Barron, Ian Hill, Sean Polay, David Siders, Bill Ries-Knight, Wes Rhea, Patrick Giblin, Hilary Shepherd, John Sterni, Record Publisher Roger Coover, and others. Some I had already met while with others, it was an awesome chance to put a face and voice to the blogs and tweets. We had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Coover and Mr. Polay, Product Manager of Distributed Media at Dow Jones, the parent company of The Record, about the future of blogging and social media at The Record. It was refreshing to hear that the paper is taking the local blogger community seriously. We heard about some new things the team at The Record are considering to tap into the draw of local bloggers. Above all, it was a wonderful opportunity to geek out with fellow bloggers and tweeters.

I’m definitely looking forward to the next meet-up! It’s also pretty apparent that we have more than enough of an appetite for a Tweetup... which I’m sure is coming soon.

National Beep Ball World Series Comes To Stockton

Thanks to the Community Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Stockton Sports Commission headed by Don Miller, the Beep Ball World Series in being played in Stockton! This is great news for our city and we are very proud to share Stockton with the other 13 teams that have travelled from all over the US and Taiwan.

Tonight, we went to the opening ceremony at the Hilton Hotel. After an address by David Smolka, the NBBA President and Don Miller, Mayor Ann Johnston took the stage. She welcomed all of the players and thanked the Commission, CCBVI and the volunteers for helping to bring this event to Stockton. Mrs. Johnston encouraged everyone to spend some time throughout the city taking in local entertainment.

After a few more remarks by Mr. Smolka, each of the teams were introduced. Most of the teams had their own cheer but the Taiwanese team had the coolest!

To learn more about the NBBA, visit them online athttp://www.nbba.org. For more information on the Community Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Stockton Stingrays, check out http://www.communitycenterfortheblind.org/ and read the recent article on The Record. To watch live coverage, visit The Valley Sports Network at http://valleysportsnetwork.com/

Best of luck to all the teams!

I Miss My Mom

We are approaching the ninth anniversary of Mom passing away. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of her. I miss her dearly. There are a great many things that remind me of her. They come from all over the place and at the most random times. Recently, her name popped up in a strange place: my Google Analytics. Starting on May 15, 2009, there have been a small number of visitors that have come to my site after searching for “”faith beckwith” stockton” in Google. Not a lot of hits, but a small number nearly every day since mid-May.

I have no idea who is searching the web for things about Mom but it made my day to see that someone did. If you knew her, I’m sure you miss her, too. We all do.

Family is forever.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!

Even though the city of Stockton cancelled our annual fireworks show due to the current budget crisis, there was still reason to be down at the waterfront on Independence Day. The second annual Taste of San Joaquin was held along with the first annual Way Out West BBQ Championship was held at the Weber Points Event Center on a perfect July day.

As soon as we paid our $1 dollar admissions we could hear an 80s rock band playing on the main stage. We made our way back and hung out and watched Aquanett perform songs from Ratt, Metallica, Poison, AC/DC and other rock bands. These guys really rocked. The guitar player was incredible. He had all the licks down and easily went from Kirk Hammett to C.C. DeVille without missing a beat (and thankfully didn’t dance like C.C.).

After listening to Aquanett for a while we ventured out to try some of the BBQ prepared by the 20 or so competitors. By the time we got there most of them had sold out of their BBQ but there were still a few remaining with plenty of chicken, ribs and brisket left. From what I tasted, Smokin’ Yankees had the best brisket and East Side BBQ had the absolute best pork ribs. After a few samples of BBQ we tried some specialties from local restaurants: egg rolls from On Lock Sam and nachos from Bradley’s were the best.

Loki Rhythm entertained on another stage, bringing world music and jazz to the waterfront with their African drums and beats.

After a full day of music and food we headed out to Lodi to watch the fireworks.

Check out the rest of the pics here.

Fathers Day

I had a great Fathers Day today. Dawn and the girls let me sleep in and then made me a great full breakfast, the kind that easily makes you forget about lunch hours later. After just relaxing around the house most of the day we headed down to Merced to take Dad and Missy to dinner.

We went to Big Bubba’s Bad BBQ for dinner. Well, we thought we were just going to eat dinner. Dad and Missy told us that they had a mechanical bull there but we thought it was just for show. Well, Makenzy and I each ponied up the $4 for a chance to ride the bull.

Check out the videos here:

Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads out there!

And check out the pics here.

Stockton Stingrays Golf Tournament

Today, Mike, Manuel, Shawn and I played in the 2nd Annual Stockton Stingrays Golf Tournament, benefiting our local Beep Baseball team. Since it was a scramble tournament, I was feeling pretty good, knowing that my teammates would help carry me. I had a few good shots but the rest of the team shot pretty well.

How’d we finish? Well, if there was a trophy given for the most honest score, we would’ve certainly won it. We can in dead last with 65. It was a great day of golf helping a great group of athletes. Can’t wait ‘til next year.

Check out the pics here.

Beverly's Graduation Party

I’m really starting to think I’m getting old. I’m not feeling old. It’s just that all these kids around me keep getting older. Today we drove down to Modesto to Beverly’s graduation party. I have known Bev since she was a lil’ tike and can’t believe she’s now 18.

Becky & Tom threw an awesome party. It was wonderful seeing them and their family again. It was also great seeing Tina, Ken and (most of) their kids again. I couldn’t help but comment all night on how much all of these kids had grown.

Congratulations Beverly on graduating from high school... we love you and are proud of you. See you all again real soon!

I only took 185 pictures, mostly because I had a lot of willing subjects. I have pared them down to 82 of my favorites... check out the pics here.

Find Your Way Video

I finally got a chance to try out the video on the new T1i.

Check it out here.